358 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A CAPTIVE RED-TAILED HAWK 



This shows the powerful beak and the keen eye that make the birds 

 of prey so fascinating. 



In fact they are very similar to the golden eagle except 

 in the feathering of the legs, the bald eagle having the 

 lower tarsus bare while the golden eagle has the legs 

 feathered all the way to the toes. The golden eagle is 

 very rare east of the Mississippi, being most abundant 

 in the mountainous parts of the West. It is a more 

 active bird than the bald eagle and preys upon rabbits, 

 grouse, young lambs and fawns. The stories told about 

 its carrying off young children are highly improbable 

 since it has been shown that the 

 greatest weight it can carry is 

 six pounds. Like the bald eagle, 

 it sometimes builds a bulky nest 

 of sticks in the top of a tall 

 tree but, more often, it nests 

 on ledges of inaccessible cliffs. 

 In fact, all of these broad- 

 winged hawks build very simi- 

 lar nests of sticks and lay simi- 

 lar spotted eggs, those of the 

 eagles, of course, being larger. 

 2. The short-winged hawks. 

 These include, of our common 

 American species, the sharp- 

 shinned, Cooper's and goshawk. 

 They seldom soar and, when 

 they do, it is in very narrow 

 circles. Ordinarily one of these 

 hawks chooses some incon- 

 spicuous perch and remains per- 

 fectly quiet until the disturbance 

 which its arrival caused among 

 the birds, subsides. Then, when 



the birds have forgotten its presence, it dashes from its 

 perch, usually with successful aim. Sometimes it misses 

 but, still determined, it follows its victim on foot through 

 the brush. At other times, flying low through the woods 

 or open country, it makes a sudden dash into a flock 

 of birds without any preliminary waiting and, at such 

 times, it is very bold and may strike birds within a few 

 feet of one. During the past summer, on two occasions, 

 a sharp-shinned hawk attacked birds within twenty feet 

 of the writer and, on another occasion, one flew into 

 the window of the house, after making an unsuccessful 

 dash at some juncos at the feeding station. 



The hawks of this group are the great bird destroyers 

 and chicken thieves that have brought the whole family 

 into disrepute. The sharp-shinned hawk, because of its 

 small size, usually confines its attacks to pullets or young 

 chickens, but the Cooper's hawk may attack anything 

 up to full grown hens. The goshawk, which is a more 

 northern species, coming southward into northern Uni- 

 ted States in winter, is the most destructive of all and, 

 when it comes in big flights, as it does about every ten 

 years when the rabbit supply in the north fails, it is a 

 great menace. Such a flight occurred during the past 

 two winters with the result that the grouse over most 

 parts of northeastern United States were nearly extermi- 

 nated. The adult goshawk differs from the other two 

 species in the color of its underparts, these being gray, 

 penciled with narrow black lines. The adults of all three 

 species are dark slaty-gray above and the Cooper's and 

 sharp-shinned hawks have the underparts barred with 

 rusty brown. The immature birds of all three species 

 are brown above and white below streaked with brown. 

 The females are so much larger than the males that a 

 female sharp-shinned is nearly as large as a male 

 Cooper's. About the only safe way to distinguish the 



Photograph by Herbert K. Job 



A BROAD-WINGED HAWK AT HOME 



'11. 



is nest was occupied the previous year by a Cooper's hawk and perhaps before it by a crow, as hawks 

 prefer second-hand nests, which they merely refit with a lining of hemlock twigs, bark or green leaves. 

 So far as birds or poultry are concerned this hawk has a spotless record. 



